Blog - Stoic Habits

What Doomscrolling Is And How To Prevent It

Whenever some disturbing news is reported to you, you ought to have ready at hand the following principle: News, on any subject, never falls within the sphere of the moral purpose. Can anyone bring you word that you have been wrong in an assumption or in a desire?—By no means.—But he can bring you word that someone is dead. Very well, what is that to you? That someone is speaking ill of you. Very well, what is that to you? That your father is making certain preparations. Against whom? Surely not against your moral purpose, is it? Why, how can he? But against your paltry body, against your paltry possessions; you are safe, it is not against you. Epictetus, Discourses 3.18.1-3

When you are surrounded by bad news, it is tempting to go in 2 ways. Avoid all mentions of it and obsessively read about every small detail and so several people are doing the latter lately, that there is even a word for it now, doom scrolling. Not convinced? Check Twitter. The website is filled with comments about users and their tendencies to doom scroll, and pleas to stop the habit. Also, Merriam-Webster has designated the term with doom surfing as one of the terms that they’re watching. It is understandable, obviously bad news is not essentially in short supply these days, and with Americans staying home more because of COVID-19, screen time has noticeably jumped. But there is good news about your bad news habit. There’re good things you can do to lessen your doom scrolling and reclaim some of your precious time. Here is what you need to know, and how to break the habit.

What is doom scrolling?

Doom scrolling and doom surfing, are new words used for describing the tendency to continue to surf and scroll through bad news, even that news is depressing and disheartening. While doom scrolling existed in practice, if not in name before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it has been pointed out that it is actually taken hold lately. It isn’t just about the virus. People can doom scroll through the news about racial injustice, and the unemployment rate. Basically, if the news is bad and depressing, you can doom scroll it. Doom scrolling can pose toxic impacts to the scroller’s overall well-being. The body, mind, and spirit thrive when we engage in positive, uplifting activities and thoughts. When we are engaged in doom scrolling, then we promote negative feelings, ideas, and bodily sensations. In the short term, doom scrolling can cause an upwelling of feelings like irritability, anxiety, and sadness. In the long term, doom scrolling can definitely foster chronic anxiety, stress, depression, and pessimism. But it makes sense why so several of us are turning to it as a coping mechanism, amid a worldwide health crisis, a national economic collapse, and a social reckoning of the systemic racism that has been swirled in this country for a long time, it is natural if one will feel a total loss of control. Doom scrolling, in several ways, feels like control because we can decide how informed we are. But when the info is triggering and there is not much by way of answers to offer, the impact is not essentially a positive one. While we initially turn to this online content for comfort and answers, the reality is that the further we consume, the more drained, helpless, and potentially anxious and lonely we will feel. Those feelings can frequently trigger us to seek out even more info, on an endless quest for a sense of control that we are not probably to achieve. But, it is in every person’s power for stopping the doom scrolling cycle.

Do not get us wrong, staying up to date with coronavirus news and recommendations is essential, as it’s staying connected with your friends. For both reasons, doom scrolling became famous during the pandemic, whether people were looking for more info or they were trying to stay in touch with their friends when they cannot connect face to face with their friends and loved ones. When we talk about doom scrolling, there’s a feeling of missing out. When there’s any breaking news, we can feel like we’re missing out and doom scrolling becomes “a solution. In times like these when we are talking about racism more than ever, we might even feel guilty if we aren’t doom scrolling. This can mean that we aren’t interested to be informed and that we’re turning the other cheek. However, it is essential to keep in mind if we are spending too much time following news and not taking care of ourselves, we are less probably to take real action.

Why do we doom scroll?

Our brain loves this stuff. We’re all hardwired for seeing the negative and be drawn to the negative because it can harm us physically. As per one expert, it’s evolution as the reason for why humans seek out the negatives. If your ancestors learned all about how can injure them, they can avoid that fate. We can sense danger. It helps us survive. But in modern times, most people do not realize they are even doing this. People have a question, they need an answer, and assume getting it will make them feel good. You keep scrolling & scrolling. Several think that will be helpful, but they end up feeling worse afterward. To that point, doom scrolling can actually challenge the way you see the world. People are drawn to doom scrolling because they feel like they have got a sense of being able to control any of that bad news. But doom scrolling doesn’t take control and only makes you miserable. The overall effect doom scrolling has on people can vary, but usually, it can make you feel more anxious, depressed, and isolated. When we are stressed, we tend to turn to social media for info or distraction. Doom scrolling is a coping mechanism in the uncertain times like it’s now in the time of pandemic in the world.

There are some ways why people do doom scrolling

Anxiety. People who do this can have anxiety, there can be a feeling of negativity with the individual. Negative news fuels these feelings.

Time. With lockdowns and quarantines, people have more time to waste. Several will waste it by watching news items.

A false sense of control. There is a lot that has happened due to the virus. Now, social disruption is beyond our control. We can feel vulnerable and helpless. Feeding ourselves bad news can give us a false sense of security with the false hope we are knowledgeable about what’s going on.

Effects of doom scrolling on Mental Health

We turn to news to make sense of what is going on in the world. When info isn’t available or given in its entirety, people can feel helpless, frustrated, and angry. We’ve for drawing the line between staying informed and doom scrolling. In a few cases, doom scrolling can create the same symptoms as a post-traumatic disorder, particularly if we’re dealing with stressful content as we’re during the pandemic.

Why should you stop it?

Despite sleep problems and mental health issues and anxiety because of uncertainty in this time, several of us have become addicted to scrolling through our phones. It leads us to have the worst feeling about life. When we are caught in the doom scrolling net, we lean towards disconnecting from reality and loved ones. This thing makes us forget the positive stuff in life. It will become a bad habit before you know it,. One that you would not only have a difficult time stopping but one with terrible consequences. The lack of routine during the pandemic has had an effect on our ability to focus on best memories and experiences. Lockdown has had a big impact on wellbeing, with several feeling trapped in an environment. Add this to a sense of helplessness because of seeing constant doom facts and figures, deaths, and losses. Lockdown has given various people too much free time, free time that almost goes to dooms Colling.

What Can You Do About Doom scrolling?

Rather than scrolling through apps, opt for reading magazines, newspapers, and newsletters. Once you find other sources, minimize the time spent online, scrolling through social media while looking for further info. It is essential to minimize the number of news we read while yet staying informed. Listen to podcasts and news rather than scrolling down on your phone. Incorporate watching the news in your daily routine and opt for reliable sources, most mainstream media channels in the United State spin all the news and outright misinform. Learn through volunteering & spending time with other people. News isn’t the only place where you can stay informed. Have discussions with your friends, share info, fact check information of each other, and have a healthy dialogue. Most people know what they’re exposed to in mainstream media, and unfortunately, the level of bias and misinformation is at an all-time high. The most essential thing is to be mindful and connected to the problems that matter to you. If you discover yourself doom scrolling, urge yourself to look for some positive news as well to find peace and joy in this crazy globe. Doom scrolling must not be a way to escape reality for us. We should be completely engaged in our daily lives and the lives of others. Staying connected matters. Staying connected with others matters but most essentially staying connected with yourself matters. Mindless doom scrolling isn’t the way to stay connected with yourself.

Strategies to stop doom scrolling habit

Disconnect yourself from the phone or other devices and replace doom scrolling with other activity

This can mean physically detaching yourself from your phone and computer. Which can advantage you in a number of ways beyond saving yourself from the impacts of doom scrolling? The blue light from our phones really turns off the melatonin in our brains which makes it extra difficult to sleep. Instead of scrolling, you can read a book, listen to calming podcasts or music, find other distractions that do not self-perpetuate the same way checking online feeds does.

Set boundaries for consuming news

Avoid news after your dinner, as it can raise stress and interferes with sleep. You can strive to stay away from provoking, visual sources that can trigger traumatic responses from you, and, above all, listen to what your body is telling you. When you slow down to listen, then your mind and body will tell you when you have absorbed sufficient or the wrong type of news. If you are feeling agitated, anxious, and stressed, you know your body is signaling you to stop what you are doing.”

Mitigate stressful triggers when necessary

And different news items can be specifically triggering to different people. For instance, a person who recently lost a loved one to COVID-19 can be further affected than others by data showing a rise in COVID-related deaths. If a trigger feels stressful or challenging, try not to criticize or judge yourself, realize that you need somewhat TLC around these problems. When you are doing doom scrolling on social media, you notice that some specific content is harmful to you and your mental health, Baker suggests muting, unfollowing, and blocking accounts as needed. Furthermore, to silencing negative accounts, it is essential to curate happiness. You can follow those accounts that you find positive & uplifting.

Stay connected in other ways

A simple lifestyle change that can help you kick a doom scrolling habit is to contact a friend and have a cleansing conversation. Give somebody a call, and if you are not screen-timed out, FaceTime or Zoom with friends or family. Being face to face with somebody, even if it is through screens, maybe the best for lowering stress and limiting mindless scrolling. You can, obviously, check-in and connect with yourself. Utilize your free time to spend on extra productive activities like reading, starting a creative project, spending time with the family you’re quarantined with, exercising, and enjoying your natural surroundings and sunlight.

Time Management

Be aware of your time and how you’re using it. Rather than mindless scrolling takes an online course or do something productive.

Mindfulness

Be more mindful of your activities. Be aware of the action you’re doing rather than losing yourself in endless articles of bad news.

Stay connected

Stay connected either virtually and in person. On a personal level check in with family and friends for seeing how they’re. On a professional level try for expanding your network on sites such as LinkedIn.

How To Overcome Stress Caused By Boredom

Stress

Moreover, there are three kinds of life, and it is a stock question which of the three is the best: the first is devoted to pleasure, the second to contemplation, the third to action. First, let us lay aside all disputatiousness and bitterness of feeling, which, as we have stated, causes those whose paths in life are different to hate one another beyond all hope of reconciliation, and let us see whether all these three do not come to the same thing, although under different names: for neither he who decides for pleasure is without contemplation, nor is he who gives himself up to contemplation without pleasure: nor yet is he, whose life is devoted to action, without contemplation. “It makes,” you say, “all the difference in the world, whether a thing is one’s main object in life, or whether it be merely an appendage to some other object.” I admit that the difference is considerable, nevertheless the one does not exist apart from the other: the one man cannot live in contemplation without action, nor can the other act without contemplation: and even the third, of whom we all agree in having a bad opinion, does not approve of passive pleasure, but of that which he establishes for himself by means of reason: even this pleasure-seeking sect itself, therefore, practises action also. Of course it does, since Epicurus himself says that at times he would abandon pleasure and actually seek for pain, if he became likely to be surfeited with pleasure, or if he thought that by enduring a slight pain he might avoid a greater one. With what purpose do I state this? To prove that all men are fond of contemplation. Some make it the object of their lives: to us it is an anchorage, but not a harbour. Seneca Of Leisure Ch 7

It is so common to get stressed these days due to unpleasant experiences and situations. From time to time, everyone feels stressed as it is a common reaction to pressure. You can get stressed when you are unable to cope up with the demands put up by your colleagues, friends, and family members or due to your goals, money and work. Everyone is aware of how it feels like to have stress in life. If you don’t care about it, even small things can damage your health. When stress affects the functioning of day-to-day life, an individual can become unhealthy and unproductive.

Stress is natural to human being but not all stressors deserve to drain your mental as well as physical energy. There are many factors on which the amount of stress that you feel depends on. You can get stressed thinking about past experiences or thinking about how much experience you have in dealing with specific pressure. Each individual is different, so a situation or an experience that cause you stress may don’t bother someone else at all. For instance, if you enjoy marketing and meeting new people, you will feel confident and have fun while doing that. But if you don’t like to talk to strangers or don’t want to garner attention, you might experience stress.

An individual can also get stressed due to boredom. Yes, many of you are not aware but boredom has a link to stress more than the surroundings or circumstances. Many people feel that they are doing the job of multiple people. This is because they go to the office, they are on call for most of the time, and they also take their children to tutor, tournaments, etc. They are having too much of work in a single day and the stress caused by this is draining them mentally as well as physically. But stress is not only caused by doing too much work. According to research, being underworked can also be challenging.

When you are underworked, you get bored and this leads to stress. Boredom is when an individual is motivated to engage with the circumstances but all their attempts to engage with the satisfying activity fail. When there is nothing for the brain to focus on, the brain will constantly remind you about worries, negative thoughts and all the things that you want to do. This can make an individual anxious, restless and stressed. And, when an individual is stressed, it is very difficult for him to focus on a specific task. Boredom is responsible for causing stress in the following five ways.

Lack of Mental Stimulation

People can easily get bored due to a lack of mental stimulation. Many of us think boredom as being lazy or lack of interest in performing tasks, but it is not. People don’t get bored by the amount of work that they have to do, but by the type of work. For example, a person in his younger days used to work in an assembling unit. The type of work was constant but it was very tedious. In the end, he left the job within three months. He was very busy with the job as he had a lot of work to do. But still, he was bored.

Some people easily get bored due to lack of inactivity and they are always eager to do something. So, they find pleasure in doing short term things such as playing video games, spending time on seeing other people’s profile on social network sites, etc. instead of reading books and gaining knowledge to better themselves. After a few hours, when they realize that they have wasted a lot of time, they get stressed as they have not focused their attention on what is important for them. We have multiple responsibilities such as paying bills, getting financial stability, family, etc. But because of lack of stimulation, people get bored and do not attend to these responsibilities like they are supposed to.

Lack of Control in Actions

There are plenty of things in life that cannot be controlled by us. We need to understand that we can control only our actions. However, many people do not realize this fact and keep thinking about the things that happened in the past or those that will happen in future. Boredom does occur when negative thoughts occupy our minds. When people feel limited in what they can or cannot do, they can easily get bored. People, who feel that they have no control over their actions, are more likely to get the stress-related illness.

Everyone dreams to have the latest electronic gadget, to go on a vacation every year and wear branded clothes. But it is not possible for each one of them to achieve their dreams because it requires a lot of money and this might stress them. Some people also get stressed because they have a partner, who takes away all the control of what they can do. They don’t have any decision-power in their relationship. As they feel that they have no control in their own life, they become stressed and anxious, harming their mental health.

Poor Use of Time

We all have heard that “Time is Money”, “Time is precious” or “Time and Tide waits for none”. How many of us have actually realized it and worked on it? Only a few of us have. Many people feel that they have a lot of time left in their hands, but when they realize that is not the case, it becomes too late. Many of the stressful events that you face are the result of poor use of time. You need to use some time management skills if you want to overcome stress and anxiety.

When you waste your time on useless activities, it can lead to a rise in stress levels. This can happen especially if that has dire consequences like overshooting project deadlines. Also, surfing the web aimlessly for hours or checking social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat constantly without any purpose, is just a waste of time. Once you realize that you have wasted time, you will feel stressed. This can degrade your performance and make you unproductive.

Lack of Purpose

A sense of purpose is very important if you want to have better physical and mental health. But some people feel that they do not have any purpose in general to live a life. There are many factors that contribute to this. Some people occasionally feel they lack a purpose and this feeling may accompany other feelings of low mood. So when the mood changes, the feeling of lack of purpose vanish. But if it lasts for a longer period, there are many factors for it. If you don’t have meaningful daily activity, you can feel a lack of purpose. Loneliness, negative relationships, lack of spirituality, bad childhood experiences and psychological trauma can all lead to the feelings of lack of meaning and purpose. People feel that they just go through the motion without feeling a sense of accomplishment.

The purpose of living is related to feelings of mastery and control. The lack of purpose is the common contributor to the stress, anxiety and depression. It causes stress when feelings of self-doubt creep in and there is no motivation to do anything.

Fear of Mistakes

The fear of making mistakes is one of the major reasons for stress in society. Many people are so afraid of failure that they don’t try to do a specific thing in their life. They undermine their efforts for avoiding the possibility of failure. The fear of mistakes is immobilizing and hence, it prevents us from moving forward. When you allow the fear to stop you from progressing in life, you are actually missing many opportunities in your life.

There are various reasons why an individual is afraid of making mistakes. This can be because of unsupportive parents or unpleasant experience in the past. This may also come from an underlying fear that mistakes will happen and the individual will do something wrong. Nonetheless, the lack of inertia is responsible for boredom and this leads to stress. When a person gets stuck in its comfort zone and is too paralyzed or afraid, he can easily get stressed. Due to this, he does not grab the opportunities, leaving him behind schedule in achieving his goals.

These are some of the ways by which boredom causes stress in an individual. If these things are recognized, it may help in reducing stress due to boredom. Boredom is stressful and allows the brain to get occupied with fears and negative thoughts. Repetitive tasks at work can also make you really bored. There might be continuous work but it may be repetitive and hence, boring. Boredom can also occur if there is no mental stimulation. In any case, boredom is stressful and it needs to be addressed if you are looking for good physical and mental health.

How To Reduce Stress By Accepting What You Cannot Control

Stoicism

Some things are under our control, while others are not under our control. Under our control are conception, choice, desire, aversion, and, in a word, everything that is our own doing; not under our control are our body, our property, reputation, office, and, in a word, everything that is not our own doing. Furthermore, the things under our control are by nature free, unhindered, and unimpeded; while the things not under our control are weak, servile, subject to hindrance, and not our own. Remember, therefore, that if what is naturally slavish you think to be free, and what is not your own to be your own, you will be hampered, will grieve, will be in turmoil, and will blame both gods and men; while if you think only what is your own to be your own, and what is not your own to be, as it really is, not your own, then no one will ever be able to exert compulsion upon you, no one will hinder you, you will blame no one, will find fault with no one, will do absolutely nothing against your will, you will have no personal enemy, no one will harm you, for neither is there any harm that can touch you. Epictetus, Enchiridion 1

Life can be stressful because of various reasons. People are worried about their jobs, family, friends, colleagues, relationships and many other things. But one thing that is common among people worldwide is worrying about the things that are not under their control. These types of people will think about their past and the things they could have done distinctly to improve the result. They exhaust their time thinking that they are responsible for all the wrong things. Some people even care about silly things like what will be the weather tomorrow or how well the spouse’s presentation will go, etc.

When you start caring about the things that are not under your control, you are actually wasting your time and energy. Caring about those things also make you stressful, anxious and depressed. People fail to understand that their life is becoming stressful because they are not accepting the things they cannot control. The reason why many of them worry is that they think by worrying they can gain control over that situation, but actually, they are not. For a matter of fact, if they have control over the thing or a situation, they should not be worried about it in the first place.

Stress has a larger impact on your lives by allowing things, which you cannot change or have an impact on, get to you. The main source of unhappiness is when you are unable to let things go. It is not so easy but you should know there are many situations that you cannot control. So it doesn’t mean you should let them control your mind because past situations and thoughts do not fix anything but they only stress you out.

Things that you cannot Control

What-if Scenarios

You do not know what is going to happen in future but many people guess the circumstances and start worrying. They make assumptions and focus on things that may never happen at all. You can control only about you and your decisions.

Past Situations

The past is gone and you don’t have any control over it. Every one of us has regrets or has made mistakes in the past but now it is not possible to change it.

What Others Think

These days, people are always ready to either criticize you or in rare cases appreciate you. But you may never know what people are thinking about you. There is nothing anyone can do about it. You cannot control them or their opinions and thoughts about you.

You might have hurt someone or you may have behaved badly with others. Those things have already happened and it cannot be changed regardless of the number of times you think about it. You can neither force people to change nor control the situation or a person. You need to accept the result and focus on productive things to do. If you are not accepting things realistically, you are having false expectations.

How you are making your Life More Stressful

Taking Blame

As soon as you start taking the blame on yourself, you are beginning to get into a negative circle. Putting too much pressure on you will only give poor results. You are aware that many things are not under control so blaming you for everything is not a good thing. In order to be highly successful, people make various decisions and work independently towards pursuing their goals. They want to excel and fulfill all their dreams. But it is not necessary that all the decisions they take would lead them to the path of success. The decisions can backfire and the situations can become what you had not expected. Completely blaming yourself and feeling upset about the situation will only bring stress, anxiety and depression.

A person would be working on a project with his teammates. Unfortunately, the project isn’t successful. So, many individuals take things personally. They blame themselves for the issues in a project. This is very stressful for them and will make unproductive. Instead of taking the blame, the individuals can learn a lesson from that and work harder the next time.

What We Control

People are in control of their actions only. Many individuals do not realize this simple thing and tend to get stressed over unnecessary thoughts. Often people believe that they can control or influence what happens in life. But that is not true and things can get beyond control and this harm them in the long run. People worry about the bills to pay every month, family responsibilities, irregular colleagues at work and much more. People have to accept that bills will keep coming, the responsibilities will only increase with time and the colleagues will work in their style only. They need to understand that they cannot control what others are doing.

“I hope the train isn’t late today”, “My favorite team should win today”. These thoughts will only increase stress as the actions are not under your control. If you are thinking about the things you don’t have control over, you are only wasting time.

Many people worldwide have excessive debt that has to be paid over a period of time. They think that they can pay the debts by changing their spending habits but often they cannot. They don’t have control even on their habits. So, people have to focus on important things rather than on things that they can’t control.

Life is Not Fair

There are many things that are only in your mind and not in reality. For example, many people believe that life is not fair to them and they are feeling crushed. The situations feel very unfair and people are not able to let go. They always have feelings of injustice and think that bad things always happen only to them. In every situation, they are the victim and they don’t get any support from others. These kinds of thoughts can occur if you have had a challenging situation in the past, such as difficult childhood, accident, physical assault or betrayal from somebody. Due to this, you will have feelings of anger, injustice and sometimes guilt.

The feelings of injustice and anger rob you of opportunities and happiness in the present and make you unproductive. They are also the reason for stress and depression and affect your physical health and mind. It is not true that bad things happen only to a particular individual. Bad situations are common in everyone’s life. It is the attitude and determination of an individual that helps them to come out of those situations successfully. Persistent anger and negative thoughts make you feel stressed and prevent you from thinking good for you.

Change

Many things bother us and one of them is people. Almost everything related to them can upset us easily and disturb our well-being. Some people tend to blame others for their suffering. As soon as they identify the cause, people begin to try and fix them. They try to change other individual’s behavior into something they seem right. They want others to behave according to them so that they won’t feel annoyed. However, there are limits to what you can do and what you can change about others.

It is not possible to change other people’s beliefs and actions according to your wishes. People and situations can be the cause of your suffering and discontent. For instance, someone talks rudely to you or he behaves very strangely with you. Those people can be the cause for your suffering but if you are trying to change the situation or the person, you have to stop. This is because you cannot change them no matter how much effort you put in. This is the reason for frustration for an individual with false hope and expectations.

Cannot Accept Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes regularly. Mistakes help us learn so that we do not repeat them in future. Some mistakes are really small, for example, an individual forgot to get something from the supermarket. Some are big, for example, a person hit his car against a tree and got himself injured because he dozed off while driving. No one likes to be wrong. But it matters how we behave when someone tells us that we are at fault. Many people find it difficult to admit that they are wrong. They always feel that they are right in every situation.

These types of people do not like when someone tells them about their mistake. They don’t accept their mistakes and believe that they are correct. They don’t want to accept that even they can make mistakes and that they can learn from those mistakes to avoid them in future. It can be stressful for many of them when they don’t own the mistakes and responsibilities. They don’t want to recognize the mistakes and accept being wrong.

Most of the people are already stressed due to multiple reasons and when they don’t accept that they cannot have control of every person or situation, they tend to become more stressed. Taking blame on a personal level and believing that you can influence what happens in life make you more stressed and prevent you from moving forward. Always complaining that life is not fair and thinking that you are the victim of bad situation always also drains your energy. Stress has a lot of negative effects on people’s lives. So, you need to stop caring for things that you cannot control in your life.

The Difference Between Self Care And Self Preservation

Habits

I often wonder how it is that every one loves himself more than all the world and yet takes less account of his own judgement of himself than of the judgement of the world. At all events, if a god appeared to him or some wise master and bade him think and contemplate nothing within himself without at the same time speaking it out loud, he would not tolerate it even for a single day. Thus we respect whatever our neighbours will think about us more highly than we respect ourselves. Meditations, Marcus Aurelius 12.4

We hear a lot about self-care in popular culture, however, we don’t get to hear all too much about self-preservation, even though without no commitment to self-preservation, we can never truly feel the benefits of self-care.

What is Self-Preservation?

In the simplest terms, self-preservation is the act of keeping ourselves safe from harm, it is regarded as a basic human instinct which we are all equipped with – yet that doesn’t mean that everyone is using self-preservation effectively and always acting in their own best interest.

Self-Preservation kicks in when we are faced with danger and adversity, it is our self-preservation which triggers the fight or flight response which either gives us the impulse to confront the danger or move away from it. It’s an effective system in the wild, however, in modern-day situations, it is not always possible to use those two modes of self-preservation.

Any situation which causes us to become stressed can trigger the flight or fight response, such as getting stuck in a traffic jam and being late for work, waiting on an important phone call, or having a disagreement with our loved ones. Yet, in many cases, the adrenaline which is pouring through our bodies after triggering the response and preparing us to run or attack is coursing through our bodies with no outlet. This adrenaline which we aren’t able to use in turn causes anxiety and can cause panic attacks – which is exactly where self-care comes in, we will explain more about the differences of self-care and self-preservation down below.

The Difference Between Self-Care and Self-Preservation

As we pointed out above self-preservation is a natural instinct which we use to ensure our safety and survival – we don’t get a choice in making it happen. Self-care, on the other hand, is a conscious decision which we make for ourselves to make sure that we are taking the time to manage the stresses in our lives. These stresses are largely ones which self-preservation can’t help us with. For example, if we receive an unexpected bill which we are unable to pay. We can’t fight our way out of the situation, and we can’t really run away from the problem without it becoming much, much worse. Instead, we can choose to be kind to ourselves while we process the information and try and find a plausible way to remedy it.

The beauty of self-care is that there aren’t a set rule of activities to engage within, instead, it is knowing what helps you to relax personally. If reading a novel helps you to dissolve stress, or a walk in the park clears your mind, or drawing a bath helps you to relax, you can always opt for these methods. However, the three fundamental aspects of self-care involve exercise, a healthy diet, and meditation. With these three aspects of self-care covered, you will find that you have much less stress to contend with on a daily basis.

What Are the Limits of the Natural Human Condition?

As we have already learned, stress can be detrimental to our health, so, what happens when our jobs constantly require us to be face to face with stressful situations. While every job has the potential to be stressful, people in service positions such as soldiers, police, firefighters, and doctors are constantly experiencing stress on a daily basis. So, it comes as no surprise that people in these roles often experience burnout after being put through extensive chronic stress. It is worth noting here that not all stress is negative stress – stress and the cortisol which follows is what gives people the ability to run into a burning building or confront an armed attacker. However, chronic stress can cause fatigue, migraines, aching muscles, stomach problems, insomnia, chest pain, a low immune system, depression, anxiety, compulsive behaviour and mood swings.

This is why it is crucial for people in self-sacrificing service roles to practice sufficient self-care, because as selfless as people in these occupations may be, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be thanked for their efforts. Putting yourself through constant stress and seeing very little in the way of praise can often take its toll, therefore, we must take the responsibility to give ourselves the recognition.

Practising positive self-care isn’t selfish, despite what many people would believe, in fact, it puts us in a better position to help look after others. After all, you can’t fill with an empty cup! Do little things which remind you that you matter. Pamper yourself, indulge yourself – within reason. Don’t become a martyr to your own stress.

The Justifications of Our Fears

There are many different forms of stress in our 21^st-century lives, there are also many different ways in which we justify our fears and what triggers the stress response. Take for example the different reactions people have when they see a spider. Spider phobias are one of the most commonly learned fears, and for everyone who is living in Australia, panic should kick in when you see a spider as they can be poisonous and harmful. But if you’re living in the UK and you see a harmless spider, the fear isn’t as well justified. Fear of spiders or any potentially dangerous creature is a survival instinct which allows us to kick into action when faced with a threat. However, our methods of self-preservation were much more suited to us when we didn’t have to think about mortgages, taxes, moving house, relationship breakdowns, getting fired, and so on.

Now our acts of self-preservation stem from fear and anxiety triggered by different stressful stimuli and it’s not always easy to see the best choice to make. For example teenagers who get involved with gangs because at the time it may seem to offer more safety by ‘joining with the pack’, however, it is easy to see how decisions such as these can lead to more trouble further down the line.

Therefore, it is important for us to understand how self-preservation works, so we can make more mindful decisions in our lives, which aren’t just simply acting in action and letting an outdated system rule us by jungle rules in the 21^st century.